San Francisco Opera invites you and your family to attend FREE screenings of our Opera-in-an-Hour Movies presented throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn about where you can catch a screening of our family friendly operas, click here.

Our 2014-15 season opening weekend was a whirlwind of activity, from the opening night gala featuring Bellini’s Norma, to the opening performance of Susannah on Saturday, with the free Opera in the Park concert as a grand finale on Sunday. Here’s a visual wrap-up culled from the hundreds of social media posts from artists and audience members.

Incest. Dragons. Bastard sons. Unexpected love stories. Girls disguised as boys. Why, George R.R. Martin took more than one page from opera when he created his epic series Game of Thrones! And so as we eagerly anticipate the premiere of season 4 on Sunday night, we at San Francisco Opera give you 15 Ways Opera is like Game of Thrones:

Sex. Drama. Sabotage. Greed. Oh, and of course, amazing feats of athletic ability. You might not think that opera and the Winter Olympics have anything in common, but we here at San Francisco Opera beg to differ. As we quickly approach the opening of the 22nd Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, we give you 14 ways opera is like the Winter Olympics:

Tomorrow evening our phenomenally talented Adler Fellows will perform in their annual The Future is Now: Adler Gala Concert. Founded in 1977 as the San Francisco Affiliate Artists-Opera Program, Adler Fellowships are performance-oriented residencies for the most advanced young singers and coach/accompanists. Under the guidance of San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald, the Adler Fellowship Program offers intensive individual training and roles of increasing importance in San Francisco Opera's main-stage season.

As the year draws to a close for our Adlers, we want to take a moment to highlight some of their key roles in 2013. The Adler Fellows truly are the rising stars of opera, and you can say “You saw them here first!”

We here at San Francisco Opera are often asked, "Who was that great singer who played so-and-so in that one opera you did a few years ago? I feel like I have seen them here before."

Our upcoming production of Falstaff features the San Francisco Opera debut of Italian baritone Fabio Capitanucci in the role of Ford, and is also the first time since 1995 that Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will have graced the War Memorial stage (he was last seen in a gala concert for Charles Mackerras). In addition to these stars, the rest of the Falstaff cast is comprised of incredibly talented artists who have recently appeared on our stage.

For today's photo blog, we highlight each of the artists in Falstaff who has had past roles at San Francisco Opera. This way, when you see the production and think to yourself, "I feel like I've seen them somewhere before...," you'll impress your seatmates by knowing where. [All photos by Cory Weaver.]

Introduction

Backstage at San Francisco Opera is a fascinating, fast-moving, mysterious and sacred space for the Company’s singers, musicians, dancers, technicians and production crews. Musical and staging rehearsals are on-going, scenery is loaded in and taken out, lighting cues are set, costumes and wigs are moved around and everything is made ready to receive the audience. From the principal singers, chorus and orchestra musicians to the creative teams for each opera, in addition to the many talented folks who don’t take a bow on stage, this blog offers unique insight, both thought-provoking and light-hearted, into the life backstage at San Francisco Opera.